Heretofore, there has been known a wearing article which comprises a main body adapted to extend from a front abdominal region to a rear dorsal region via a crotch region of a wearer, and a side panel for covering a lateral surface of a waist region of the wearer.
As this type of wearing article, an absorbent garment of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H08-017792B is known, for example. The absorbent garment of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H08-017792B comprises a waste containment section (main body) adapted to extend from a front abdominal region to a rear dorsal region via a crotch region of a wearer, and a side panel provided on each of laterally opposite sides of the waste containment section.
The absorbent garment of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H08-017792B is produced in the following manner. Firstly, an developed module is produced which comprises an absorbent assembly corresponding to the waste containment section, and four side panels a respective two of which extend from a respective one of front and rear end portions of the absorbent assembly, laterally in respective opposite directions. Then, the developed module is folded in half by pressing a tucker bar against a longitudinally central position of the absorbent assembly.
However, in the production method of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H08-017792B, in order to half-fold the absorbent assembly, a strong pressing force from the tucker bar is applied to only a portion of the absorbent assembly corresponding to a bend line. This is likely to cause damage to the absorbent assembly. Moreover, in the production method of Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H08-017792B, the absorbent assembly, which encloses an absorbent body and an elastic member and thereby has a non-uniform thickness, is half-folded on the basis of the pressing position of the tucker bar. This also causes a problem that a folding line of the absorbent assembly becomes positionally unstable, resulting in poor accuracy of the half-folding.
Therefore, as an apparatus for accurately half-folding a workpiece while suppressing damage of the workpiece, a folding apparatus of the following Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A is known, for example. FIGS. 26 to 28 are schematic diagrams of a folding operation using the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A.
As illustrated in FIG. 26, the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A comprises a suction-holding section 102 for sucking and holding one of two regions of a workpiece 101, and a suction-holding section 103 for sucking and holding the other region of the workpiece 101. The suction-holding sections 102, 103 are adapted to be relatively displaceable between a state illustrated in FIG. 26, in which the first suction-holding section 102 and the second suction-holding section 103 are opened, and a state illustrated in FIG. 27, in which the first suction-holding section 102 and the second suction-holding section 103 are closed. Thus, the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A is operable to close the suction-holding section 102 holding one of the two regions of the workpiece 101 to be folded in half, and the suction-holding section 103 holding the other region, to thereby half-fold the workpiece 101. Then, the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A is operable, after half-folding the workpiece 101, to re-open the suction-holding sections 102, 103 as illustrated in FIG. 28, and transfer the half-folded workpiece 101 to a transfer conveyer located downstream of the folding apparatus, while sucking and holding the half-folded workpiece 101 by one 102 of the suction-holding sections.
However, the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A has a problem that a folded position of the workpiece 101 is undesirably displaced after the half-folding operation. More specifically, the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A can apply a suction-holding force from the suction-holding section 102 directly to the one region of the half-folded workpiece 101, as illustrated in FIG. 28. On the other hand, it is impossible to sufficiently apply the suction-holding force from the suction-holding section 102 to the other region of the half-folded workpiece 101, because the other region is located on a side opposite to the suction-holding section 102 across the one region.
Thus, the folding apparatus of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-205943A has difficulty in reliably maintaining the folded position of the workpiece 101 after the half-folding operation.